Now that bird flu seems no longer apt to wipe out a a fifth, half or more of the human population in the immediate future, the threat of a nuclear holocaust seems to have receded for a time and a giant rock or snowball may hit Mars but not Earth, we are back to a more real threat, which is all of us.
In this country [New Zealand] a major study published this year by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) found energy consumption per person had risen 13 per cent between 1997 and 2005…At the same time in fast growing economies such as China and India huge numbers of people are staking claims to the lifestyle only intensive energy use makes possible.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4…
Meanwhile environmentalists, concerned with progress toward another Great Dying that occurred some 250 million years ago when life was nearly extinguished on the planet from global warming, contribute little but a bit more methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than the dreaded CO2.
Canadians, who tend to take the environment more seriously than Americans, have invested heavily in geothermal power development in the U.S. while stalling their own through bureaucratic obstacles more onerous even than those in the U.S. Both countries ship scrap wood abroad where it might fuel power plants in other lands while preferring to burn coal.
New Zealand is an interesting test bed for progress toward renewable energy replacing fossil fuels since it already claims to produce some 80% of domestic electricity from renewable energy sources. When the government refused permits for building more coal-burning plants, it sent industry in an uproar. Now ambitious plans for renewable energy development have become more attractive and realistic.
But exactly how do you top people in Rotorua, living in a volcano, having electricity imported on power lines?
The solution is not really all that difficult beyond the enormous problem of dealing with the main driving force in human history: inertia.
And it is that which may well allow Mother Nature to start over in her failed mission to develop an intelligent species on her planet.
Best, Terry